No bar for liberation theologian but work "erroneous"

Published: 12 March 2007

Contrary to earlier reports, the Holy See has not barred Spanish
liberation theologian Fr Jon Sobrino from teaching or publishing but
has declared that his work contains statements that are "either
erroneous or dangerous".

National Catholic Reporter
says that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ruling finds
various flaws in the works of Fr Sobrino, who was a theological adviser
to the late Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador.

Two books on
Christology by a pioneer of the liberation theology movement contain
statements that are "either erroneous or dangerous" and "may cause harm
to the faithful", the official Congregation notification ruled.

A Jesuit spokesman in Rome told the Reporter
that while future disciplinary action has not been ruled out, the
Vatican has not barred Fr Sobrino from teaching or publishing.

According
to the report, Fr Sobrino wrote in December to the Jesuit Superior
General, Fr Peter Hans Kolvenbach that he could not accept the Holy
See's judgment because it "misrepresented" his theology and because
doing so would be to acquiesce in what he described as a 30-year-long
campaign of defamation against liberation theology.

In his
letter, Fr Sobrino also quoted another Jesuit theologian, French Fr
Bernard Sesboue, a former member of the Vatican's International
Theological Commission, as saying that that the Congregation document
on Fr Sobrino's work "appears so exaggerated as to be without value"

"With
such a deliberately suspicious method, I could find many heresies in
the encyclicals of John Paul II!" Fr Sesboue reportedly wrote.

The Fr Sobrino books in question are Jesus the Liberator, originally released in 1991, and Christ the Liberator, first issued in 1999. Both were published in English by Orbis Books.

Fr Sobrino also noted that the Portuguese translation of his book Jesus the Liberator had received the imprimatur of Cardinal Paolo Evaristo Arns of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

He also criticised the methods of the Holy See as "not always honest or very evangelical".

"An
atmosphere against my theology was created in the Vatican, in several
diocesan curias and among several bishops," Fr Sobrino wrote, "and in
general against the theology of liberation. This atmosphere was created
a priori, often with no need to read my writings."